


Fairytale Living

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-03-09
Packaged: 2018-01-15 02:40:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1288204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I deserve every terrible thing you want to say to me and worse, Emma, but we need to talk.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fairytale Living

**Author's Note:**

> AU after Emma is released from jail.

There wasn’t really anyone Emma expected to be waiting for her once she was released. There was, however, one person she didn’t want to see.

Of course he was waiting for her.

“I deserve every terrible thing you want to say to me and worse, Emma, but we need to talk.” Neal didn’t look any different than he had when she’d last seen him. She just wasn’t fooled this time by his shy smile and pleading eyes.

“Talking’s the last thing I want to do to you.” Her hands balled into fists and she had to remind herself that taking a swing at him was probably a bad idea. Assault on the same day she was released wasn’t going to go over well, especially with a prison guard less than a dozen feet away.

“Emma…”

“Look, if you want the car back, fine. I don’t need it.” Except that it was the only chance she had at having a roof over her head tonight, probably. But she’d been homeless before. She knew how to cope.

“I didn’t come for the car. I came for you.” He wasn’t wearing a scarf, despite the bitter cold. she hated that she noticed it, and hated even more that she cared. He’d abandoned her eleven months ago, and she didn’t owe him anything, not even her time.

“You didn’t come for me when I was under arrest because I’d been caught with the watches that were yours. The watches that, funny enough, only one person knew that I had.” He hadn’t come to court either. Or visiting hours. He hadn’t been there when she’d given birth or when she’d curled up in her cell afterwards, more empty than ever before.

“I was a coward. It’s the biggest regret of my life, running when I should have stayed. I had reasons, but they don’t matter. All that matters is that I hurt you.”

“Yeah, well you’re not going to get the chance to do it again.” The locked lot where the bug had been kept for her was the farthest one, and she had to appreciate the irony of a stolen car being kept safe for a prisoner by cops. There wasn’t a good reason to continue listening to him when she had the means to leave everything behind. She wasn’t the same person she’d been when she’d fallen for him. She wasn’t going to be distracted by his voice or the memory of his touch. Or thinking what it had been like to share a bed with someone for the only time in her life.

He followed her.

“What do you want, Neal? My forgiveness? Fine, you’re forgiven. The details of the last eleven months? Well that’s too bad. My past is my own and so’s my future, or what there is of it. And it doesn’t include you.” She threw her bag into the passenger’s seat; there wasn’t much in it other than a change of clothes and a few toiletries. And the name of her probation officer, which sound like a social worker but ten times worse. This one she couldn’t run away from unless she wanted to risk going back inside.

“I just need an hour of your time. Just one hour and if you don’t want to see me ever again I’m gone. It’s important. Please?” He took a step closer and Emma panicked.

“No. I’ve given you enough time already.” The foster care system had taught her to be quick, but jail had taught her to be quicker. She was in the car before he could do more than stare at her, mouth hanging open. She had the doors locked before he could move, and was out of the parking space before he could do anything about it. She was free.

Her resolve lasted for three days. She wouldn’t allow herself to feel guilty; he didn’t get that. But she was curious enough to wonder just what he thought an hour in his time would accomplish. She seemed to have a knack for finding people; it only took three hours to track him to a run down apartment uncomfortably close to the jail. Had he really been so close and still done nothing?

“Ten minutes, not an hour,” she told him when he opened the door. Despite the chill he was only wearing an undershirt and jeans. The apartment was sweltering, which was strange because they’d rarely used the heater when they’d been together, even if they didn’t have electricity bills to worry about.

“Do you want something to drink? I have water and… well water.”

“Nine minutes and then I’m out the door.” He still had the dreamcatcher. It hung from the window and it was painfully hard not to look at it. She needed to get out of the apartment; it had been stupid to come in the first place.

“I came to see you once, on a visiting day. It took me almost six months, but I thought maybe I could find a way to get you out, even if it meant taking your place.” He fidgeted with his hands as he walked. She didn’t want to watch his fingers but at least it distracted her from the damn dreamcatcher.

“Nice fairytale, Neal. You don’t have to lie to make things better. They’re not going to…”

“They told me you couldn’t have visitors because you were in labor.” She didn’t know what the look on his face was; guilt or pain or something else. She didn’t care. She’d stopped caring about him a long time ago. She had.

“If you’re going to yell at me for…”

“You? I’m the one that abandoned you and my son. I let myself be convinced that it was best for you but I was wrong. I made it up to Canada before I told August…”

“How do you know it was a boy?” She hadn’t even looked at him. Months before he was born she’d known that she would never hold him, and it would hurt too much to have that memory. All she knew was that it was a boy. It was unfair for Neal to know even that much. It was her knowledge to treasure and shield.

“I messed up once, Emma, but if there’s one thing good that my father taught me it’s that you don’t abandon family.” His eyes flickered to the closed door. Emma stared at it, almost unable to hear him over the roar of her heart in her ears.

“What did you do?” She had to be wrong. There was no way he would have done what he was inferring.

“I know what you went through in the foster care system. I know what my life was like. He’s our son, Emma. I wasn’t going to let that happen to him.” A bead of sweat dripped down his face. Emma followed the path with her eyes until it was caught in his hairline. It was so hot in the room. She really needed some fresh air. She didn’t need to open the door and see what was on the other side.

It felt almost like a dream as she approached the door and it swung open. There was a bed shoved against one wall. On the opposite wall was a crib. It wasn’t empty.

Her son.


End file.
